December 23, 2019 Show with Josh Fryman on “The Importance of Fellowship in a Believer’s Life”

Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Sweet fellowship, as we share each other's lives.

God has nothing as sweet as fellowship, as we share each other's lives.

We're talking about sweet fellowship, sweet fellowship, sweet fellowship.

Sweet fellowship. Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

Earth, who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 23rd day of December 2019, the day before Christmas Eve.

And that song should give you an indication of what we're going to be discussing today.

Our theme is the importance of fellowship in a believer's life, and here to discuss it is a returning guest, who is one of my dearest friends and a man who almost became my pastor after visiting his congregation for a number of months and worshiping with him and fellowshipping with him and learning from him and all kinds of wonderful things that God blessed me with through that church in Riverhead, Long Island, where he formerly pastored.

It was my intention to remain in permanent residence there, but God had other plans.

He moved me to Pennsylvania, which prevented Josh the nightmare of having me as a congregant under his pastoral care.

And Pastor Josh providentially moved to North Dakota, where he now pastors,

New Testament Baptist Church of Larimore, North Dakota. And it's my honor and privilege and delight to have you back on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, my dear friend

Pastor Josh Fryman. Thank you, Chris. It's good to be on with you again. Merry Christmas. I'm a little embarrassed.

Why? I didn't know that you were recording us when we sang that song together. That was very quick of you.

But I'm glad that it worked for the program today. That was actually the group, one of my favorite recording groups,

Acapella, produced and written and directed by Keith Lancaster, and the name of the album is actually

Sweet Fellowship, and so is the song. But I think a perfect song to describe what we're, or to introduce us,

I should say, to the theme at hand, the importance of fellowship in a believer's life. Before we get to that theme,

Pastor Josh, if you could let our listeners know something about New Testament Baptist Church of Larimore, North Dakota.

This is the first time I've had you on, I believe, I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time I've had you on where you are pastoring this specific church.

Yes, that's correct. Our church was started, next year will be the 40th anniversary, next

April, of when the church was started, and our former pastor, Ken Schaefer, he resigned and stepped down willingly, might

I add, not against his will, he stepped down in August, and so my family and I moved here last year,

I served as an assistant pastor for a little over a year, and then the church decided that instead of looking elsewhere for the next pastor, they would go ahead and invite me to stay on as the pastor, and so back in August, late

August, I became the pastor of the church here, and I'm very honored to be here. We enjoy the people very much, and we love the area.

North Dakota, I've said this in several places, I've had the opportunity to speak,

I say that I'm quickly realizing that North Dakota is, in fact, the best kept secret in the

Union, so we're glad to be here. We're just about a half hour west of Minnesota, and one hour south of the

Canada border. Great, and if anybody wants more information on New Testament Baptist Church of Larimore, North Dakota, you can go to Larimore, and that's

N -T -B -C after that. Larimore is L -A -R -I -M -O -R -E

N -T -B -C, which stands for New Testament Baptist Church dot org. Larimore, N -T -B -C dot org, and we hopefully will remember to repeat that information later on in the program.

This is a very important theme. Somebody, in fact many people, might very wrongly assume on face value seeing that in the promotional material and also hearing the announcements that theme, the importance of fellowship in a believer's life, they might wrongly view this as some kind of a light, fluffy kind of a topic that we are addressing today.

But I think that it is sometimes a matter of life and death.

It is a very serious topic. In fact, allow me to be so bold as saying, one of the key factors involved in my own personal testimony where I, tragically after 18 years of sobriety as a

Christian, returned to the sin of habitual drunkenness was because my fellowship with other believers which also involves accountability, dwindled to nearly non -existence.

And I think that one of the aspects of the importance of fellowship is keeping each other accountable.

I have never met a lone wolf or maverick Christian wandering around by themselves that didn't have eventually something tragic happen in their own lives, sometimes an abandonment of faith.

All kinds of things can happen. But, let's have your words be prominent in this discussion.

If you could, it might sound like a silly question, but why don't you define for us the word fellowship, at least in the manner with which we are using it today.

Well, I'll let the New Testament define it. And I would first agree with you, I think it is very important.

It's so important that in the Book of Acts, which were given as this record of these early churches and the power they had and what they were able to accomplish through the power of the

Spirit and their commitment to follow the Lord, all of our listeners,

I think if not most of them, all of them, would agree that doctrine matters, praying matters, right?

The breaking of bread and all this that Acts talks about. But the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 that they, meaning the early church there, continued, not sporadically, they continued steadfastly.

This was a consistent thing they did in doctrine and fellowship. Fellowship is listed right among things as important as doctrine and prayers, and it is important.

To define the New Testament, it's a partnership. It's a participation.

This is what it is in Acts, and it's also a cooperation. I think this is seen strongly in the

Book of 1 John, where really the first chapter lays out the importance of fellowship.

It's repeated in chapter 1, but there's a fellowship with God that we have, and then because of that there's a fellowship with each other.

And I'm very burdened right now, for American churches at least, maybe later on in the conversation

I can tell you about a conversation I had with a Chinese Christian. I met him in Prague just earlier this year.

Just fascinating conversation. I'm disappointed that during one of my many trips to Prague I didn't bump into you there.

Sorry about that. Continue. If you saw someone duck into the coffee shop real fast, that was me.

Hiding behind a Chinaman. I hope your listeners understand that there's a lot of hours and days and months of friendship behind the bantering here.

No disrespect. In fact, let me quick, before you return to that story, I want to thank you, in case

I forget to later. Thank you for the fellowship and also the shepherding and the teaching and preaching that you provided when

I was newly released, for lack of a better term, from a

Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in North Carolina. Hebron Colony Ministries.

I will sing their praises until the day I am called home to glory. A very fine ministry.

It's actually also free of charge for men who are battling the sin of addiction.

Addictions of all kinds. I was actually one of the few there that was there because of the sin of habitual drunkenness.

The vast majority were drug addicts and even in that category, the vast majority were the abuse, the serious abuse of prescription drugs.

But your fellowship I think was a vital, vital spoke in the wheel of God's sovereignty and providence that helped to restore me to a sound mind and to prepare me for a life of sobriety, which

I continue into this day. I can never thank you enough, Brother Josh, for that. Oh, praise the

Lord. I mean that. I'm thankful for it. I enjoyed our times together very much. I miss him.

Hopefully our paths will cross again one day. Amen. You met a Chinaman in Prague, and I'm sorry if I...

No, no, it's okay. It's fine. Well, I can just tell you the story now.

I met him over there, but my point, I don't want to forget this, was that I'm very burdened. Now, that's why when we were talking about topics for discussion,

I was glad that you chose this one. I'm very burdened for American churches, at least, because I don't think that we've ever lived in a day where it is more possible to heap to ourselves teachers having itching ears, we have podcasts,

YouTube, you know, we have websites, we can use blogs, we can kind of isolate ourselves and pick and choose what we want and the attention and the importance of the assembly and the relationships that come from that are

I believe, just from seeing social media and kind of the interactions people have, they're kind of being weakened, and that's really not good.

It's not good for individuals. It's not good for churches, obviously. But this conversation I had in Prague kind of lends itself towards this idea.

I met him in Prague. We had gone over there. I went over there with the former pastor here, and we were visiting with the church there, and just trying to fellowship and help them with some things they were going through, and a man who had been a, well, he had been living in China, he was part of an underground church, and was explaining to me,

I mean, this is, we're talking 2017, 2018, this is not going back hundreds of years, this is not going back 50 years.

There's this persecution happening right now in our world against believers, and he's explaining to me how they would have to hide kind of where the assembly would take place.

They would move it around, but it was the assembling of themselves together that they looked forward to so much, and hearing him talk about this fellowship that they had with each other, it was very convicting, and I felt almost ashamed of sort of how we have and I'm not speaking for everyone,

I know I don't know every congregation, but in general, how we've kind of diluted the worship service.

I just saw this morning a video of a pastor leading his church, he's singing

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas in the sanctuary, snow falls down to the ground and they have this little mock snowball fight, and like that's projected as, well, we had fun in church today, and it just is such a shame at what's being accepted as fellowship.

That's not what the Bible's talking about when they assemble themselves together, this is not just to have fun.

I'm sorry that you saw that film of the worship service at my congregation. I didn't want to say it.

Now, grace that this wouldn't even come close to anything that horrific. I know.

But it breaks my heart that this is what's being put out as, you know, this is an assembly, this is worship, and all the things that go with that.

But back to, I turned a rabbit hole, so forgive me, and I'm also very nervous, so I'm going to try to calm down and slow down here.

But what this man was telling me was not just that they look forward to the fellowship, they look forward to the assembly, but this was what was so striking about the conversation.

It was the trust that they had in each other. He told me that, you know, we have to trust each other.

And I thought about that, and I thought, you know, that's a really important thing in a church, you know, is to trust each other.

If you think about what we're called to do, I mean, we're to rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep, but we're also called to bear one another's burdens.

And I'm not going to confess my fault one to another if I don't trust you, right?

I'm not going to, James 5, which, I don't know the diversity of your listeners, but that word confess is a strong word, and maybe we could talk about that in just a minute, but it doesn't mean confess like our sin to each other.

But it's the idea that you're going to pray for me, and I have a relationship where I trust you enough

I can share this with you. These people in China, they're trusting each other with their lives. This is real.

This is a close -knit church, close -knit community. They care about the

Lord. They care about their worship. They care about their singing together with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

They care about the exposition of Scripture. They care about fellowship. They care about being close, and it was just really interesting.

I haven't forgotten that, and I came back, of course, I'm a new pastor here, and so the idea of looking at a church and, you know, kind of all the goals you have for it and what you think the

Lord's doing, and it just seems to be a theme that I've been studying a lot lately, and I just think that we have been duped in many ways by the devil, where we have 10 computer screens long list of friends that we have on social media, but if we're honest, our real, true relationships go very, very shallow.

They don't go very deep at all, and if there's ever a place where that should not be the case, it should be in the church.

It should be in the local assembly. So I am excited to talk about it. I think it is very important, but back to the definition.

It was a long way of answering, but it's more than a friendship. It's more than an acquaintance. It's a partnering.

It's a participation, and to the word that the New Testament is translated, there's a common union.

We get the word communion from that, and the word fellowship is translated interchangeably.

It's a communion, and it is a fellowship. And of course, our common union is

Christ. It's not an ideology. It's not a creed. It's a person, and so that's why

I believe Christians ought to have the strongest relationships because of who we have a common union around.

As far as the importance of with whom we share this fellowship,

I believe that and I'm sure you would concur, and if you could follow up after I finish explaining what

I mean, obviously every Christian should not be isolated in an evangelical monastery of some kind where they only are in the presence and enjoying the company of fellow

Christians. We must be in the world, even though we are to be not of the world.

I remember my very first pastor after I was a born -again

Christian, my very first pastor, Mike Gadosh, preached a phenomenal message, and I still remember it all these years later.

Jesus Christ, friend of sinners, separate from sinners. And I think that we all, as Christians, need to follow that example, but although we have friendships with sinners, and we are a light to them, we are an ambassador for Christ to them, we are to demonstrate not only the love and compassion and mercy and grace and tenderness of Christ to them, but we are also to declare the unwaveringly biblical gospel of Jesus Christ that may offend them, even to the point of their abandoning us as friends forever, just as many who followed

Christ did. Obviously with the caveat that we don't need to add our own offensiveness to the gospel, because the gospel itself offends those who hate it, but even though we are obviously to have friends who are sinners, we are not to be so involved with them and linked with them that we become we start to fall into the same behaviors as they express and participate in and so on.

And the key here of fellowship I'm sure you are intending to convey here is that we are to predominantly not exclusively, but predominantly be in the fellowship in the company of true believers, and would you say that there, for some of us that have a past where we have been rescued by God, redeemed by God from something like an addiction or something like that, we have to be even particular about the

Christian friends who dominate our company. I'm not saying that we are supposed to be snobs and avoid hanging out with certain brethren and so on, but our goal should be to predominate or dominate our time,

I should say, with certain kinds of believers. Am I off base here? No, I mean, the book of Acts is proof to what you're saying.

A fellowship with each other doesn't produce an isolation. It produces a body that is strong enough to engage a culture around it and see

God work in miraculous ways. I mean, you get through the book of Acts and you find them saying, hey, these people are turning the world upside down.

That wasn't because they stayed away from the world, it's because they fully engaged the world.

But how they engage the world is important, and they would not have been able to engage as unified and strong,

I believe, unless they had done exactly what Acts chapter 2 says. They knew what their purpose was, they knew how important each other was, and it wasn't about Paul, it wasn't about Apollos, it wasn't about an individual, it was about the

Lord, it was about Christ. And so you have this unity, and yes, you are not to only be around believers, but you were to do good to all men, but the

Holy Spirit moved Paul to say, but especially they that are of the household of faith. So there is an obvious mission the church has, and when

I say the church, I'm talking about a local assembly that has the Greek word is the word soma, it means for body,

I should say. And so it talks about the body, it means that which casts the shadow. A local church ought to have an impact on its community, and that can only be done by its members.

This isn't rocket science, it's not some, you know, you don't have to know the Greek to figure that out, but how well they affect their community for the cause of Christ.

I'm not talking about just giving out food, there's nothing wrong with that, giving out clothes, there's nothing wrong with that, but the whole point is to preach

Christ, and it's to see people converted to Christ, not to denomination, but to Christ.

He's preeminent. This is what Colossians 1 talks about, he's the worthy preeminent in all things, and I'm kind of getting off track here, but the point is this, is that a genuine fellowship of believers is going to engage their community, it's going to engage the world.

They're not going to be in a bubble. I fear that that's what's happening. I fear that most of our conversations and theology talk is with each other about what we believe, and there's a place for that, and I'm going to speak about that in just a minute if that's alright.

There's a place for that, but it's to equip us so that we can go out unified as a body and engage the culture around us, and I think

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego would be a great example here, and let me take a few steps back here.

You talked about we are not to be, like, you know, in this monastery apart and all that, because we're so afraid of being influenced by the world.

And, of course, we're not to do that. The word influence, though, is the perfect root word, but the letter

D at the end of that word and the letter R at the end of the word change the meaning drastically, right?

So, if I go into the world to be an influencer, then that's the right motive.

But if I go into the world and am influenced by the world, well, then I've got a weakness.

I've got a problem. And it's the very subject of fellowship that helps strengthen me in those areas.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel came to them, asked them to pray for him. He had to go interpret that dream.

Daniel's off the scene. They're out there by themselves, and they're able to stand up when no one else was.

Why is that? Well, because they allowed a man to influence them who had purposed in his heart he would not defile himself.

I just talked to our church recently about this. You look at Ephesus, Thessalonica, Corinth, the region of Galatia.

I mean, just study history and how pagan these places are, and yet the

Holy Spirit moves the Apostle Paul to say, hey, here's what I expect of them. I expect them to forgive each other like they've been forgiven.

I expect them to love each other like I love them. I expect them to have the same heart, the same spirit, the same mind.

This is in the middle of pagan cultures. This is in the middle of a crooked and perverse nation that they're supposed to shine as lights.

So, we do have to engage our world. We do have to engage the culture around us, but the power of our engagement, the influence that we're able to have on our communities has a lot to do with the unity inside the body.

And that unity only comes from genuine fellowship. And, um,

I don't want to keep talking here, but that when you become a believer in Christ, okay, what's the first step?

You're saved. The Lord has saved you. It's a wonderful thing. You get baptized, and you show this, but what's the next step?

The next step is discipleship. And what is discipleship, if not fellowship?

Discipleship is not showing up at a Sunday school class at 10 o 'clock on Sunday and listening to a 12 -week series on, well, lectures on different doctrines in the

Bible. I mean, that's good. I encourage anyone to go to Sunday school, but that's not how someone's discipled.

A person is discipled by someone spending time with them, by someone coming alongside them, by someone participating in their life with them and teaching them what the

Bible says about how we ought to respond and how we ought to live. So, our Christian life started with fellowship.

And it continues. I mean, look up Apollos, right? Apollos is talented. He's got great gifts.

Aquila and Priscilla come along, and they say, hey, you know, why don't you come spend time with us? That's what the verse says, that they took him unto themselves, and they expounded unto him.

They taught him the Word of God more perfectly, more completely. And so, the discipleship is fellowship.

And so, but that continues on. And I'm kind of getting in a rabbit hole here. So, there's no difference between interviews, apparently, and my sermons.

I'm sorry, Pastor Josh, were you saying something? Well, if that didn't prove there's no difference between my sermons and my interview, nothing would.

No, you're doing an excellent job. Sorry, folks, if it appears as making light of something serious.

I just miss my laughter -filled moments with my friend

Josh, who nearly became my pastor. But yeah, I think that you're spot -on on everything that you're saying.

And when we return from our first break, I would appreciate you perhaps giving us some examples of things that should, especially those things that are essential to take place in true, biblical, godly,

Christ -honoring fellowship. And when we come back, we'll have you give us some of those examples.

If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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Don't go away, we'll be right back with Pastor Josh Fryman of the New Testament Baptist Church of Larimore, North Dakota, on the theme,

The Importance of Fellowship in a Believer's Life. This is

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I'm safe, I'm safe like the criminal on the cross I'm safe,

I'm safe like the criminal on the cross, praise God I'm safe,

I'm safe, no more to suffer Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen, and if you just tuned us in our guest for the full two hours, with a little less than 90 minutes to go is

Pastor Josh Fryman. He is pastor of New Testament Baptist Church of Laramore, North Dakota.

We're addressing the theme, The Importance of Fellowship in a Believer's Life. If you'd like to join us with a question of your own, our email address is

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com

Please, as always, give us your first name, your city and state of residence and your country of residence, if you live outside the

USA. Please only remain anonymous if you are asking a question about a personal and private matter.

And, by the way folks, you heard just moments ago, the ad for World Magazine Well, we are in the current issue of World Magazine, we have a full page ad full color, full page ad for World Magazine, or should

I say for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in World Magazine, so I hope that you look for that, and we also have some of our sponsors featured in that very full page ad for World Magazine.

They are printing, or have printed, over 25 ,000 additional copies on top of their normal print run that are being mailed only to pastors.

And on top of that every chair in the audience at the G3 conference coming up in January is going to have a copy of World Magazine with the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio ad in it, waiting for whoever is sitting there that's over 5 ,000 chairs at the

G3 conference, and we'll be telling you a little bit more about G3 later on in the show.

But, Pastor Josh Fryman before the break I said that I'd like you to list some, at least, very important elements that should be existing in a true biblical fellowship and perhaps even essential elements.

Well, so that's kind of a two -pronged approach. I'll do a personal one first, and then I'll do a corporate one if that's alright.

Yeah, that's absolutely fine. Okay. So, and I appreciated the break because I wanted to think through this because it's very important, and I think it's important that everyone understands that fellowship starts with a personal fellowship with God.

If you think about what salvation is at its very core, it is us being reconciled to God.

It is the idea of forgiveness, or the action of forgiveness, I should say. It is an actual thing that God does with our sin.

There is something that's between sinful man and holy God. God in His goodness before the fall,

He talked to Adam. Adam knew what it was to hear from God. There was a relationship already established.

We were created social creatures. I mean, we all know these things. And then this idea of this fellowship, this relationship with God, this purpose for which we've been created is to bring

Him glory. It is to serve Him with our lives. It is to fulfill His purposes for our lives.

And because of sin, we fall short of that glory. We are not able to fulfill our purpose.

We're not able to...and what I mean by that is I mean by bringing God glory with our lives as believers.

And so God in His goodness provides a way for us, provided a way for us to have our sins removed, have our sins forgiven.

And what was the result of that? The result of that is a relationship. It is a fellowship.

It is being adopted into the family of God. It is being reconciled to God, and now

I'm able to pray to Him. I have a relationship with Him as my Father. I am a joint heir with Jesus.

All of these terms that you read in the Bible, they're all relational. And that's very important, and we can't just dismiss that as theological vocabulary.

It's very important that we understand that, because my relationship with God, my fellowship with God, that is key if I'm going to have the right kind of fellowship with my fellow believer, and if I'm going to have or know what to look for in the right kind of fellowship at a church.

And so that's how it all started. It all began with this...and you can read this in the

Old Testament. You see how in Deuteronomy 7 God is talking about how He didn't set His love upon Israel because they were great or because they had anything about them.

They're rich. All the things that go with that. The blessings that come from God. In the tabernacle, the

Lord is saying why I'm doing this, that I may dwell among my people. There is this idea God is holy.

God is utterly set apart. He is holy, holier. He is holiest. This is the superlative of holy.

He's holy, holy, holy. So I do not want to at all take away from that. He is utterly set apart from us.

But we have to remember that He is also Abba, Father. He is also the one we can go to because of Christ and have this relationship with.

This is something God designed. It's what God wants. So much so, Chris, that in the

Gospel of John, Jesus says I go to prepare a place for you. Why? Why is

He going to prepare a place for us? And here's what He says, that where I am, there you may be also. I mean, to me that's fascinating.

Jesus is saying because where I am, I want you to be where I am. I want you to be with me. Now, I think,

I think that sometimes we're so familiar with that that we lose how wonderful it is that at one time we are enmity against God.

We are enemies of God. And now we've been reconciled. Now we not only have been forgiven and been declared righteous by the

Judge, but we have been given a relationship with Him. We have been given the opportunity to fellowship with Him.

And this is foundational to what John is teaching in his first epistle where he says that fellowship with Him is going to be seen in fellowship with each other.

So, our fellowship with God continues. It is something that is necessary.

We pray. We read our Bibles. We pray to the Lord. He speaks to us through His Word, not through dreams and visions.

He speaks to us through His Word. You know, that's complete. We know that. But in 1

John, he says that if we say that we have fellowship with Him, meaning the Lord, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

But, now this is key, okay? If we walk in the light as He is in the light, you would think

He would say we have fellowship with Him. But He doesn't say that. He says we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

So, literally, not figuratively, our literal common union is

Christ. This is why the Lord's Supper Table is so special, right? This is why it's called the communion.

He is our common union. And so, on a personal level, there is that understanding that I need my fellowship with God to be right.

And I don't want to grieve His Spirit. I want to yield to His Spirit. I don't want to walk in His Spirit so I don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

I don't want my prayers hindered. You know, these are the things. My relationship with God, I want to be right.

And so, I'm going to faithfully attend and hear the preaching from His Word and the teaching from His Word. I'm going to fellowship with believers to help my fellowship with the

Lord. So, that's first and foremost. And I say that because what has happened is, and I forget who said it,

I think it might have been Paris Reedhead, I've read exactly, but he said that a problem with many

Christians is that they fellowship about God instead of fellowshipping with God.

So, they talk to each other about God, but they really don't spend no time with God Himself.

And I want to be clear that our fellowship with each other is not in any way a replacement of our fellowship with the

Lord. It starts with fellowship with the Lord. So, if I know true communion, true fellowship, true relationship with the

Father, with my Lord, you know, with the Holy Spirit, and by the Holy Spirit, I should say, then

I am going to be a better person for other people to fellowship with, and I'm also going to know what to look for in right fellowship.

And if I don't make God first, then anybody that says they're a Christian, well,

I'll just accept whatever they say. No, you can't do that. You've got to be careful, because then you're going to be influenced by every wind of doctrine.

So, that would be the first part, is that your personal fellowship with God, that is absolutely important.

Let me, if you don't mind me interjecting for a second, because it reminded me of something, it reminded me about something that, when you mentioned

Abba Father, I was just recently, as you know, at the Foundations Conference in New York City, and one of the speakers was

Paul Washer, and I had my extraordinary, very first interview ever with Paul Washer, and I've been praying for over a decade.

He, in one of his sermons, and he was very emphatic about this and a little bit angry, he said, stop saying that Abba Father means daddy.

It doesn't mean daddy. It does have a very personal and direct familial meaning of son or daughter to father.

But it is not, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he was basically saying it is not to be equated with the more playful understanding of daddy, and that it is always connected with the highest of respect and a proper fear.

Yeah, I would amen that a thousand times. This goes back to before what you'll know what to look for in a fellowship, because God says in Psalm 89 verse 7 that God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints.

This idea of God's people getting together for worship is not new. It didn't just pop up in the

New Testament. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

I believe the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to record the word Abba, not so that we have this idea like, oh, he's my dad.

It is the idea that, in the context it's talking about adoption. And so, and back to the point

I was trying to make is, this is more than just a judicial decision. It's more than that.

There's a familial one now. There is one where I've not just been freed by a judge and then dismissed, hope everything worked out well for you.

No, I've been forgiven, and I've been justified. I've been made righteous through Christ's righteousness, but I've also been given a relationship with God now, and he is my father.

But I would agree with that a thousand times. It doesn't mean that we have this casual approach to God.

That's not it at all. In fact, I'm going to have to let you pick up where you left off, because we have to go to our midway break right now.

I apologize, but remember that the playful aspect of our relationship with God is not to be considered with Abba Father when we pick up.

If anybody would like to join us on the air, send in an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com. This is our elongated break that we always have in the middle of the show, because Grace Life Radio in Lake City, Florida, who airs this program twice a day in a pre -recorded format, requires of us a larger, or longer

I should say, break in the middle so that they can air their own local public service announcements and other announcements that connect

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio to Lake City, Florida. So therefore, please be patient with us as this is a longer than normal break, but also write down the information provided by as many of our advertisers as possible so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them.

Remember folks, we will not remain on the air if our advertisers do not continue advertising.

And one way of ensuring that they will continue advertising is if you patronize them whenever possible, as frequently as possible.

So write down as much of the information as you hear for as many of the sponsors as possible that you hear, and patronize them as often as you can.

But also, remember to send in questions to chrisarmson at gmail .com chrisarmson at gmail .com,

to our guest Josh Fryman, and we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

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That's PTLBibleRebinding .com. I'm so grateful to our

Sovereign God that while manning an exhibitor's booth for Iron Sharpens Iron, a major Bible conference, I providentially met

Pastor Andrew Smith of Christ Reformed Community Church, just south of Jacksonville, Florida, right off I -95 in St.

Johns County. Andrew is certainly the kind of pastor that is a perfect match for my radio show, and has already proven to be an ideal guest.

Christ Reformed Community Church shares my conviction that God is both creator and sustainer of the universe.

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I agree with Christ Reformed Community Church that the very purpose of the church is to make disciples, that we are tasked with the responsibility to evangelize locally, nationally, and globally, and that we are to equip the saints for the work of service.

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Chris Arnzen's radio program is just the best. Iron.

Criticizing. Iron. I think that's what it's called. This is Todd Friel of Wretched Radio and TV, with Phil Johnson of Graced U, inviting everybody to come to the

G3 conference, which has almost instantly become one of the best conferences in the country. And it is.

It's a great conference. I love it. And Chris Arnzen was there last year. He's been there, I think, every year.

It's great to see him there. You and I actually did some recordings in the lobby at that place, which is a highlight for me.

So tons of stuff going on. Tons of great speakers. And no matter where you are in the building, you will hear Chris Arnzen's laugh.

And that's worth the price of admission alone. If you would like to join Phil, me, Chris, and a cavalcade of great preachers, so it should

And now there's even more exciting news. John MacArthur himself is now also on the lineup at the

G3 conference, Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th, 2020.

Go to G3conference .com, G3conference .com. See you there! I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, host of A Visit to the

Pastors Study, and I am so thankful to be part of the advertising family right here on Iron Sharpens Iron.

If you live on Long Island, or if you're visiting the metropolitan New York area, I invite you to join us for worship at The Haven on Sundays at 4 .30

p .m. You meet at the Ascension Lutheran Church facility, 33 Bayshore Road in Deer Park, New York.

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p .m., 33 Bayshore Road, Deer Park, New York. Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.

I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.

Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer, but not the type that typically comes to mind.

Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently, he wrote a book titled Consider the

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Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many

Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.

He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for $1 million or more, and in approximately 10 different states.

In Illinois, his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history.

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Dan Botafugo's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.

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That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and the

Dividing Line webcast here. Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach, preach, and debate at numerous venues, some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church, now located at their new, beautiful facilities in Corham, Long Island, New York.

I've had the privilege of opening God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions, have led youth retreats for them, and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my

New York debates. I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught, discipled, and edified by the

Holy Scriptures, and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ.

I also want to congratulate Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham for their recent appointment of Pastor Rich Jensen's co -elder,

Pastor Christopher McDowell. For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

That's hopereformedli .net, or call 631 -696 -5711.

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island that you heard about them from James White on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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Augustine, Florida, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Clint Leiter of Highway M Chapel, Sedalia, Missouri, and the

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Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa of Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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Lord Jesus Christ. And of course the end for which we strive is the glory of God.

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org, that's gracechurchatfranklin .org.

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King, Jesus Christ, today and always.

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There's nothing as sweet as fellowship as we share each other's lives.

We're talking about sweet fellowship, sweet fellowship, sweet fellowship.

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. And before we return to Josh Fryman on our discussion on fellowship and the necessity of fellowship in the life of a believer,

I just want to tag a reminder on the end of that ad that you heard for Solid Ground Christian Books.

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solid -ground -books .com, you are helping to further ensure a longer future for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio because solid -ground -books .com

is a key sponsor of this program. Barring a miracle of God, I cannot imagine that we would be able to remain on the air without their financial support.

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solid -ground -books .com, and always remember to tell Mike Gaydosh, the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books, that you heard about him and that ministry from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Before we return to Josh Fryman on that subject that I mentioned, the importance of fellowship, the exact title for our program today is

The Importance of Fellowship in a Believer's Life. Before we return, I just have a couple of very important announcements to make.

The first one is, I hope that if you are a man in ministry leadership and are able to get to Carlisle, Pennsylvania on Thursday, January 9th, you will join me for the next free

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon. This will be from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m.

Thursday, January 9th at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue Banquet Hall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Our guest speaker is Justin Peters. Many of you may know that Justin Peters has cerebral palsy, and one of his major missions in life is to expose the charlatans in the

Word of Faith Pentecostal movement. Word of Faith Pentecostalism, not to be confused with more mainstream

Pentecostalism, Word of Faith is a very dangerous, deadly, and damning mutation of Pentecostalism in the charismatic movement where people are traumatized and lives are often ruined and people even die as a result of refusing medical attention because they are told that if they are truly

Christians with strong faith, they will with certainty be healed, and sometimes they're told they're healed when they are not, when they still have cancer coursing through their bodies.

Well, Justin Peters, one of his missions in life, next to, of course, first and foremost, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, is to warn people about these charlatans in the

Word of Faith movement, and he is going to be discussing at the luncheon, Protecting the

Flock from Wolves, that's the theme, and we hope you come. It's for men in ministry leadership only, and we are going to be, as always, giving away free books to everybody who attends.

Every man in attendance is going to leave if they so choose to get their free books.

They're going to be leaving with a very heavy sack of free books, dozens of free books, brand new books, donated by major Christian publishers all over the

United States and the United Kingdom. These are books that have been specifically selected by me, and each publisher gives me, donates to me, 100 copies of that specific title, so that I can give every man in attendance a copy of that title, and since there are multiple publishers doing this, every man's going to leave with dozens of books.

So, I hope that you come for this free event. Everything is free of charge. The food is free. The speaking engagement of Justin Peters is free.

The fun time of fellowship and feasting is free. And the books are free.

So, this was the brainchild of my precious late wife, Julie, in the 1990s. She knew that, being in the radio industry,

I had more friends than the average person who are pastors, and she, one Christmas season, said, instead of us exchanging gifts, why don't you conduct a free pastor's luncheon near the

Christmas season and invite your pastor friends? And that began in the 1990s at the excellent request of my wife, my late wife, and this has grown from about 30 men to about 100 men every year.

Twice a year, I have it now. And so, I hope that as many of you as possible listening will register.

Just go to my website, www .ironsharpensironradio .com, and you will see a banner for this luncheon with all the details on it.

www .ironsharpensironradio .com. Just look for the banner for the free pastor's luncheon with Justin Peters' photograph.

And the website, by the way, for his ministry is www .justinpeters .org. But that's www .ironsharpensironradio .com,

and look for the banner. And also, you can just email me to make it easier, if you want to just email me. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com is my email address, and you can register by email or by phone, 631 -291 -7002.

631 -291 -7002, and it's absolutely free. Then, coming up later in the month, from Thursday, January 16th, through Saturday, January 18th, once again,

I will be packing up my bags and heading down south to Atlanta, Georgia, more specifically College Park, Georgia, to the

G3 Conference at the Georgia International Convention Center. This is always a monumental, phenomenal event, just absolutely extraordinary.

This January is on the theme, Worship Matters, and they always have such an enormous and deep roster of speakers, including

Dr. Stephen J. Lawson, including my friend Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, including

Phil Johnson, the executive director of Grace to You, the media ministry of John MacArthur. Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio is on the roster, as he very often is.

Derek Thomas, world -renowned Presbyterian author, conference speaker, pastor, teacher.

My friend Dr. Tom Askle, he is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Cape Coral, Florida, and also the executive director of Founders Ministries, the

Calvinistic ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention. We hope that Tom is healthy enough to remain on the roster, because I don't know how many of you are aware, but he collapsed very recently from behind the pulpit and was unconscious, and he is still recovering from that, and I haven't gotten an update exactly what caused that scare, but we will keep you updated and hopefully

Tom will be there as he has been scheduled. Stephen J. Nichols, who is the president of Reformation Bible College, the college founded by R .C.

Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. As you heard James White saying, Kosti Hinn, who is the nephew of the notorious heretic and charlatan

Benny Hinn, is on the roster. He has repented of the word of faith heresy and is now a Reformed Baptist pastor.

He was in California, as James White said, but now he has just recently received a call to pastor in Arizona, and he is a

Reformed Baptist and a cessationist now pastoring there. And, of course, the latest addition to the roster is

John MacArthur, and I would be going there even if it was just John MacArthur. I so admire

John. He is one of my modern -day heroes. So if you want to join me there at the G3 Conference, go to g3conference .com,

g3conference .com, and I strongly urge you not only to just attend, but also if you are a business owner or leader of a parachurch organization,

I strongly urge you to register for an exhibitor's booth while there is still room for one for you, because there's always something phenomenal that has happened to me manning my exhibitor's booth for Iron Trip and Zion Radio at the

G3 Conference. This will be my fourth conference manning an exhibitor's booth for Iron Trip and Zion Radio, so I hope you join me in doing the same if it applies to you.

So go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com, and mention, please mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Trip and Zion Radio when you register.

And, by the way, this coming Monday, a week from today, December 30th, Josh Bice, the founder of the

G3 Conference, who is pastor of Praise Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, he is going to be my guest here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio for two hours, and we will give you more details on the topic and so on.

Brother Bice is a remarkable preacher. He is just as blessed with the gift of preaching as anybody else in the roster at that event, as far as I'm concerned.

So he will be speaking there well, and well worth your efforts to get to Atlanta to the

G3 Conference. I have a final word, a final request. Iron Trip and Zion Radio, we are in seriously urgent need for your donations.

We have quite a number of bills for December and January that need to be paid that we have not yet paid, and it's getting very scary for me.

I know that we are to be anxious for nothing, as the Lord commands, but I am a human, a sinner, and I am still in this flesh, this body of flesh, so I do get filled with anxiety when

I fall into these financial pits that require your help. So please help us.

We had over 41 ,000 people download this show in October alone, and even though that is the case, we only had a tiny trickle of donations that came in.

I'm not talking about the amounts. There have been very generous people in our audience who consistently give very generously, but I'm talking about the number of people who have donated.

It's very tiny and continues to be so. Please, if you have never donated before, or it's been a while since you've donated, or if you have the ability to donate again, we need your help.

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So please, if you need a church, and you need help finding one, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Pastor Josh Fryman. On our theme of fellowship, chrisarnsen at gmail .com

chrisarnsen at gmail .com and please give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter.

So, Pastor Josh, before the break, you had begun to discuss an agreement with Paul Washer that the term

Abba Father, although it does involve a deeply personal father -son, father -daughter relationship with the one using that term, if they are indeed a true believer, it is not to be confused with the more playful, more relaxed, more, or should

I say, less reverent term Daddy. Correct. We should not be casual.

There's nothing about God that we should be casual with. I think a good distinction is we are to come before his throne boldly.

The Bible says that, but that doesn't mean brashly. It doesn't mean that we, you know, hey,

I'm here and I've got requests. God, I was referencing Psalm 89, 7, that he is greatly to be feared in the assembly of saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

So there's no exception there for who should be reverent to the Lord, all those that are about the Lord. So the reason

I brought up Abba was just to remind the listeners that our

Christian life is more than just being forgiven of sin. We entered a relationship with God.

He is our Father. Again, not a casual one. I'm not suggesting that. But just because we aren't to be casual doesn't mean that we can't appreciate and be thankful for the relationship that we do have with him because of Christ.

And that is the main thing, that our personal relationship with the

Lord is paramount. As I referenced earlier in the program, Christ is to be preeminent, not prominent, in our life.

He's to be preeminent in our life, and in all things, and that includes our relationships.

But that being said, okay, that is good, but we also are given gifts by God on earth here, and that is people, that is friendships, that is relationships.

And so as I was referencing earlier, 1 John 1, fellowship with God, there's going to be fellowship with believers.

And I just want to touch on real briefly here and on the importance of fellowship in a believer's life because there are things that God's going to use people in our lives for.

He uses the preaching and teaching of his word, there's no question there, but as I mentioned earlier, discipleship is very important, someone coming alongside somebody else, teaching them, showing them how they're supposed to live according to Scripture.

But I want you to think about the things that a believer in a local assembly is required to do according to the

Bible. We are to rejoice with those that rejoice, we're to weep with those that weep, we're to bear one another's burdens, we're to have the same heart, the same mind, the same spirit.

I think in Psalm 148 -ish, it talks about young men and young women, and then it talks about old men and children.

They're all worshiping God together. So there is this, today, in a lot of churches today, there's these isolated groups.

I'm not saying that senior citizens can't fellowship with senior citizens and they have to fellowship with the children's church.

If there is a children's church, what I'm saying is that there is an expectation that the body is just that, it's the body, that there's not cliques.

This is why Paul had to write and correct the Church of Corinth, because they allowed divisions and schisms into the body.

Well, why did that happen? Because the devil's real, and if the devil knows that with unity there's strength, he's going to do everything he can to keep us from being unified.

But it goes deeper than that, and I want to just touch on these couple things here that are very important.

The Bible says in James 5 that we're to confess our faults one to another. We're not going to have a Greek class here, but the word confess there is not the same word that Paul would use in Romans 10 about confessing our sin.

It's not the same word John uses in 1 John 1 about confessing our sin. That is homiligeo, which means to speak the same thing.

This word in James 5, the prefix is eczema, which we would get like exodus or exit.

It means to speak out the same thing. And so what it's saying here, it's not saying a Catholic may believe that you have to confess your fault to somebody else, you have to confess your sin to somebody else.

It's saying that there ought to be people in your church, there ought to be people in your assembly that you can speak out about your faults to, and that they will pray for you.

This is the very next statement he makes, pray for one another. So confess your faults one to another, pray for one another.

Now how in the world are we supposed to do that if we don't trust each other? How in the world are we going to do that if we're not close with each other?

There are people that I know I can call and I can talk to and I can confide in and I can ask for help, and I know they'll give it to me.

I know that they have my best interest at heart. This is why fellowship matters, because it allows that to take place.

Matter of fact, the name of your show, Iron Sharpens Iron, comes from Proverbs 27, but the context is friendship.

It's not enemies. It's about friendship. It's the same chapter that Solomon wrote about faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Spurgeon said we would never strike a surgeon though he cuts us deep. Why? Because we know that they have our best interest at heart.

According to God, which is the best authority we can go to, He knows everything. He says,

I'm going to put people in your life who will correct you when you need to be corrected, who will wound you when you need to be wounded, but it's for your good.

It's for your benefit. I'm going to put people in your life that you're able to talk things out with. I want to say this is very important for the listeners to understand, at least in my estimation it is.

We are a soundbite society right now. If it doesn't fit in a 140 -character tweet, if it doesn't fit on a video that's less than a minute and 30 seconds, people aren't going to watch it, they're not going to read it, and that is really not productive at all.

We have to get back to where men and women can talk to each other at length, sit down and let a discussion develop and let questions be asked and leave our pride at the door and allow ourselves to discuss things and learn things.

I don't know if you ever read anything about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, but they were called frenemies, and David McCullough wrote a portion in his book about John Adams.

Sometimes they would talk to each other for hours and just going back and forth, and Charles Spurgeon had friends like this.

Joseph Parker was a contemporary of Spurgeon's. They didn't agree on everything, and there was a lot of part where they didn't see each other at all, but there were times when they did have to discuss things and hash things out, and Spurgeon intentionally did not surround himself with yes -men.

By the way, this program, which is patterned after exactly what you're speaking about, obviously

I typically have one, sometimes two, sometimes at the most three, unless I have more on at the same time for a specific event or something, but I typically have one guest on for two hours, and this model has been mocked by people in Christian radio, people in high places in Christian radio, and I was even told by a program director who wanted to hire me as a talk show host that I should abandon this nonsense of interviewing somebody for two hours, and in fact, at the time, my show was only an hour.

He thought that was ridiculous, and he said, you should do what David Letterman and Jay Leno do.

They have a guest on for at the most four minutes, and if they're really phenomenal, after the break, they're invited back for another four minutes, but that's it.

Then they have another guest. What you're doing is ridiculous, I was told. So I said to this person, so you're equating somebody discussing things that have eternal ramifications with a moron who is an actor or actress discussing some stupid, unimportant event that took place during the filming of a movie or a sitcom or something.

This is an anecdote that some ridiculous, stupid celebrity is going to be relaying to, and you're comparing that with the words of eternal life.

So anyway, sorry I interrupted you there, but it reminded me of that. No, it's better than asking me if John Wayne made a movie about it.

Only Josh and I know what that means. But anyway, go ahead. Maybe you could put that as a bonus feature or something.

But you're sadly, unfortunately that's where it's at in a lot of places today, where that's the mentality.

But the reality is that that's not productive for the believer. God designed the assembly.

He designed fellowship. He designed, I mean, He created us to be social to begin with, but then

He gave us the assembly. He gave us fellowship. He gave us friendship. He gave us good influences, and books are a great way to be influenced.

And I'm not suggesting you don't read. I love reading. I love books. But God gifted me with genuine friendships where there's genuine fellowship, and there's conversations that last longer than ten minutes.

And so I really want to encourage the listeners to find someone that you can trust, that knows the

Lord, they know what the Lord Jesus Christ looks like, because that's what we've been predestinated to look like.

We've been predestined to be conformed to His image. And allow the Lord to use them in your life, and then you look for somebody else that you can do the same thing with.

You know how much I love Spurgeon. He has a great quote about this, and I'm not going to quote it perfectly, but I'm going to paraphrase it.

But he said that of all the illustrations that the Lord gave about believers in Scripture, He didn't identify us as bears or lions.

He calls us sheep. And he says one thing about sheep is they love to get together.

And when sheep go, they go in flocks. And he said that's how God's people should be.

And again, I'm paraphrasing that, but that's the idea. But that's true. There is no such thing as a maverick

Christian. It may sound super spiritual. You know, I've got the Holy Spirit in my

Bible, and bless God, that's all I need. Well, no, that's not true. God designed the assembly.

God designed preaching and teaching. God designed reproving and rebuking and exhorting.

God designed all those things. These didn't come up in some council. God designed this.

So don't dismiss the significance of an assembly. And then when you go to the assembly, do not go just to be entertained.

This goes back to how do you look for a fellowship. You look for a community of believers. You look for a church, an assembly of saints, that take the

Word of God seriously. They take the exposition of Scripture seriously. They take Christlikeness seriously.

And you know that this is the environment I want to grow in. This is the environment I can be challenged in and I can be helped in.

And then you contribute to that environment, but then, of course, you also allow that contribution into your own life.

But because we are, I mentioned this before, because we are such a technologically driven society,

I mean, just think with me on the side here, okay? Forget the spiritual application. Just think secular right now.

Because of technology, I can go to the grocery store and never talk to a single person. I go to a self -checkout.

I don't have to talk to anybody. I go to my car. Well, I don't even have to go to the store.

I could just order it online. It could be delivered to my house, right? Text messaging takes the place of phone calls.

Phone calls take the place of personal conversation. By the way, I have a smart phone. I'm not against technology.

But what I'm trying to caution everybody is is that if we're not careful, we will allow sort of the idea of today's culture to infiltrate into the

Church. And next thing you know, the only time you see each other is on Sunday. You wave at each other across the sanctuary and then you can't wait to get back into your car because, you know,

I really don't like my pastor that much anyway, but I love listening to these three guys on... Yeah.

Well, that's just something I overheard here. No, I'm just kidding. But yeah,

I'm serious, though. You have podcasts. And I'm all for podcasts. I encourage our people at our

Church. I want them to listen to preaching. I want them to be fed. I'm not...

I just said last night, you know, preaching on a Sunday is not meant to be exhaustive on a topic. I want you to go home and study it out.

But it should not replace the significance of a local assembly. And there are relationships in a

Church. God places us in that body, and those relationships matter. And because of what we're called to do, bear one another's burdens, confess our faults, pray for each other, love each other, forgive each other, these things cannot happen if we just have some sort of surface relationship with each other.

So that's why I'm kind of burdened... the idea of fellowship being replaced with this secular friendship mentality.

It's not just friendship. Fellowship goes deeper than that. Fellowship is a partnership.

It's a cooperation. It's a participation. It's a communion that we have with each other for the cause of Christ.

And so it is something that matters. And I do want us, and especially in American churches, to take it far more seriously than many do.

We have a question from somebody, to my knowledge, I don't believe this brother and friend and sponsor of Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

To my knowledge, I don't think he's ever sent in a question before. I usually only give the first name of a questioner, but I'm going to give this brother...

I'm going to announce his full name, because I want those who need his financial counsel to contact him, because he is, after all, a sponsor of this show.

His name is Michael Gallagher, and he owns and operates the local

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Thrivent Financial. And he asks...

And I don't know what he is talking about. Maybe you've heard of this thing that he is going to be mentioning.

And basically what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask this question and have you answer it when we return from our final break. But Mike Gallagher asks,

What are your thoughts on a Zoom meeting men's fellowship group for professionals who struggle to get as much fellowship time as they would like?

Digital age, does it take too much away from true fellowship? Interesting question.

And if you could answer that when we return from the final break, as I said. If anybody else wants to get in line, and we do have a couple of people waiting to have their questions asked and answered, please be patient with us.

We'll get as many of you as possible, as long as time permits. But if you want to get in line, send in an email immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

ChrisArnson at gmail .com ChrisArnson at gmail .com Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right back with Josh Fryman on fellowship after these messages.

One sure way all Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers.

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Digital age, So the first part,

I'm all for it. I think it's good. Some of my closest friends, I have one friend who is a missionary in South Africa and my dad is probably one of my best friends.

They are not physically present but WhatsApp is a messaging tool. You can call over it.

You can video over it. I call my dad I talk to my dad, So I hope

I didn't come across that technology is wrong, but I would caution him that it shouldn't replace local, physical conversation in a church.

I used to have this conversation with somebody else, and I would encourage Mr. Gallagher with the same thought, that a local church is not a luxury, it's not a want, it's a need, and God promises to meet our needs.

And so, if you're a believer, when people are praying about, you know, hey, I might take a new job, or is there a biblical church in the area, well, you know,

I haven't looked at, well, that's the first thing you've got to look for, you know, because fellowship matters, and the fellowship matters, and it's significant.

So, no, of course, there's nothing wrong with a video conference or video chat or anything like that. I would encourage it, actually.

He might be a blessing to somebody else, but I just would say we have to be careful that it doesn't replace, you know, a local, our local church fellowship and things like that.

By the way, I just want to give a plug of giving the phone number for Thriving Financial. If you live in South Central Pennsylvania, specifically in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, or if you live anywhere in the

United States and want to refer someone or get a location near you,

I should say, from Mike Gallagher, you can call the offices of Thriving Financial at 717 -254 -6433, 717 -254 -6433.

This was not planned beforehand, folks. This was a spontaneous email

I got from Michael, and there was no discussion prior, so this was not just an excuse to plug his offices.

Thank you, Mike. Hope you keep listening. We have an anonymous listener who says,

I am what you might call a victim of Christian cliques in churches.

I seem to be shunned by many of the cliques in the congregation where I am a member, and it is very saddening, disheartening, and depressing.

I don't know what to do about it. Should I inform my pastors of this? I seem to be shunned for no reason

I can think of. I'm a very outgoing person. I am not involved in any unrepentant sin other than the sins that we all commonly commit as sinners before we are in glory.

So please give me some counsel on this, and please pray for me. I don't take that lightly, and I will pray for them, so I'm glad they put that at the end.

Secondly, I think that they bring up a good point that the person,

I don't know if it's he or she, but they mentioned that they're not in any sin. And so this might be referenced to like under church discipline or anything like that.

If you think about it, that's how serious fellowship is. I mean, fellowship is so significant that when a person is sort of removed from fellowship, it's supposed to, you know, the idea of losing that drives them back to reconciliation.

So I think in sort of a roundabout way, they brought up a good point about the importance of fellowship.

But let me encourage them this way. Number one, the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to confront a church over this very issue.

It was because of divisions and schisms, and it's not good, it's not right. So they're not, they shouldn't feel guilty about feeling bad about, you know, seeing them and acknowledging them, that, you know, that's not how the

Lord's church should operate. It's not how a body operates at all. Romans 8 .28,

all things work together for good. Often that's sort of viewed in this linear way where all things eventually will work together for good.

That's not what it means. It means, like a machine, there are dozens of parts operating simultaneously and they're working together.

That's what a church ought to be, is all people, all parts of the body working together, of course, for good.

So they're not wrong to see that and say it's bad. The Holy Spirit is on their side, if I could say it that way, like he dealt with, he used the

Apostle Paul to deal with that issue at the Church of Corinth. And I would remind everybody that's listening that one of the main things he used to bring people back together was the

Lord's Supper Table. This is what Paul drives them to, and of course, and the reason for that is because at the foot of the cross, which is what we're reminded about at the

Lord's Supper Table, you don't have room for rich, poor, black, white,

Hispanic, Asian, you know, background here, background there. You don't have room for any of that. We're just sinners who are saved by grace.

And so that's, I think Spurgeon called it level ground at the foot of the cross.

Amen. So I guess you're not a supporter of the woke movement. No. But let me answer the other part of the question.

Should they talk to their pastor? Absolutely. They should talk to their pastors. That's part of their job.

That's part of the blessing of being called into ministry is that you get to help.

And I think that some people don't understand this from a pastor's perspective. We want to hear from you.

We want to hear from the people in our church because sometimes we feel like we might be answering questions but nobody's asking, you know, and we pray every week that when we answer that pulpit, we feed the flock of God, that we are able to give the folks something they need for that week or for those next few days.

So they want to hear from you. So I would absolutely encourage you to go talk to your pastors and let them know about that and then have them help you through that and bear that burden with you.

What happens when the pastor says, excuse me, who are you? And do you realize you're interrupting my conversation with my friends?

Yeah, that would not be good. Well, thank you,

Anonymous. And I'd like you to have now, Josh, a minute and a half to just summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today.

And I want you back and I'll leave it up to you if you want to continue this conversation because I think that we just scratched the surface.

I would agree. We did just scratch the surface. I guess I would leave everyone with this thought that fellowship with the

Lord is of the utmost importance. It's paramount. It's first. It matters. A personal devotion matters.

A prayer closet with you and the Lord, it matters. Personal devotions are very, very significant.

Bible reading and prayer. But we cannot allow ourselves to be content to read our devotional books alone, listen to podcasts and sermons with our headphones on by ourselves, you know, sort of only listen for what we're dealing with and going through.

We cannot allow ourselves to do that. We need the fellowship. We need to hear the good things from other people and we need to hear the bad things from other people.

I have blind spots in my life and it takes a friend who loves me enough to tell me. I don't have friends like that just poof out of the air.

I have friends like that because they were developed over time and because of fellowship. So I would encourage people to get active in their church, get active with those around them in the church.

If they're not discipling somebody, find someone to. If you don't have anyone discipling you, then find someone who might disciple you and you'll be blessed by the depth of relationship that the

Lord will give you with individuals like that. Well, I want to make sure our listeners have your website again for the

New Testament, this Church of Larimore, North Dakota. That website, once again, is larimorentbc .org,

L -A -R -I -N -O -R -E -N -T -B -C, which stands for New Testament Baptist Church dot org.

Pastor Josh Fryman, it has been such a joy to have you on the program after this long absence.

I eagerly look forward to having you back on very soon and very often. I hope we make this at least a once a month interview with you.

I would enjoy that, Chris. Thanks again. Well, thank you. I want to thank everybody who listened today. I want to wish you all a very

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope that you all have a safe holiday season and use every opportunity that the

Lord gives you to proclaim the good news to the lost. And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater